Well no, not me exactly, just this server. I’ve been running it off my Rogers cable connection since around 1997ish, on a series of low-class Pentium machines put together from spare parts. The connection’s actually been surprisingly fast and reliable, especially since I yelled at them a couple years ago until they finally swapped out my LanCity[1] for a DOCSIS.

Thing is, when it goes down, it usually stays down for a good half day before I can contact someone at home to reset the modem. That downtime’s pretty painful. Yes, I know, I’m pathetic, but I just hate it when things don’t work the way they should.

Plus, it’s every geek’s wet dream to have their own box hosted in a kickass datacenter, complete with diesel generators, banks of UPSes as far as the eye can see, VESDA fire supression, raised floors, constant 20 degree celsius air conditioning, and fat, fat GigE pipes to the Internet. I wouldn’t mind having armed guards behind bulletproof glass as well, but alas, I can’t afford the rent at Q9. Maybe if I didn’t have to eat.

After literally months of research (remember, I don’t make large purchases lightly), I’ve started renting a dedicated server at Server Matrix in Dallas. For a measly US$79/month, I get a Celeron 2.4, 1GB RAM, 80GB drive, and 1TB of data transfer per month.

So you’ll have to excuse me if I’m light on the blog updates, between crunch time at work and my new toy, there isn’t much left. Some random tidbits:

Saw American Splendor last weekend. Wasn’t really impressed. Haven’t read the guy’s comics, but the way everything was portrayed in the movie, he didn’t really seem deserving of all the recognition. With the exception of his cancer, his pain and anguish seemed to be self-imposed or a consequence of his own laziness. I hate people like that.

Took advantage of a pre-order pricing mistake at Amazon.ca for Angel: Season 3, and got the box set for a measley CDN$38. Threw in a copy of High Fidelity to push the order high enough to get free shipping. Now there’s a decent movie — then again, I’m a sucker for John Cusack in these roles (Grosse Point Blank being another).

Watched the extra features on Tim’s Lost in Translation DVD[2]. Sofia Coppola always looks like she’s scowling — no wonder she never made it as an actress.

We bought a portable humidifier because the winters are so dry in Kitchener/Waterloo. The thing needs refilling every 8 hours though, and if you let it run dry the owner’s manual warns of famine, war, despair, and other generally bad things. I’ve forgotten to refill it in the morning on at least 4 separate occasions to date. Maintaining this thing’s annoying, I imagine it rivals the kind of concerted effort required to raise a child[3].

[1] Notice how it had the Rogers “Wave” logo on it – now that’s old school.

[2] Haven’t decided whether I’ll buy it yet: 1) When you get right down to it, the movie just looks pretty and has a few gems of dialog. Perhaps not worth $27; and 2) Hube’s theory is that they’ll release a special Academy Award edition of the DVD with more bonus features (since this one seems a little bit skimpy). Guess I’ll wait and see if they do that.

[3] Contrary to what it may seem, I’m not a child hater. I like children, I do the whole diaper thing, have no problems playing with them, and I don’t get mad if I’m drooled on. It’s just a lot of work, and the last thing I need now is more of that.